One of India’s most wanted gangsters, sought in more than two dozen murder cases, who was arrested in Indonesia after 20 years on the run, has arrived in the capital, Delhi.
Rajendra Nikalje, widely known as Chhota Rajan or Little Rajan, has been on Interpol’s wanted list since 1995 for running a crime syndicate that engaged in extortion, arms smuggling and contract killing.
“We tracked Chhota Rajan’s movements closely and informed the police in Indonesia and Australia,” said Anil Sinha, director of the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Indian capital.
Eventually the Indonesian police managed to arrest him. Nikalje was detained when he flew into Bali airport from Sydney last month.
His deportation was delayed for two days when volcanic ash from an eruption of Mount Rinjani forced the closure of Bali’s main international airport.
On his arrival in Delhi on Friday morning, he was taken to the headquarters of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the country’s federal policing agency.
“He has been handed over to the CBI,” Mumbai deputy commissioner of police Dhananjay Kulkarni, who was one of the officers on the flight with Nikalje, told news agency AFP.
He is expected to be produced in court later in the day, Indian media reports said.
Gangsters like Nikalje, who operated in the financial capital Mumbai, have long drawn attention in India, with their exploits featuring in Bollywood films and newspaper articles.
His arrest comes as prime minister Narendra Modi’s government ratchets up diplomatic pressure on neighbour and arch-rival Pakistan to hand over his former partner and underworld boss, Dawood Ibrahim, suspected of militant links.
Ibrahim allegedly masterminded India’s deadliest bombings, which killed at least 250 people and wounded more than 700 in Mumbai in 1993.
Indian authorities say they have shared evidence of Ibrahim’s whereabouts with Pakistan, which rejects India’s claim that he is living there.
Wanted in Mumbai
Nikalje, 55, is wanted in the western Indian city of Mumbai in connection with at least 17 cases of murder.
He is also accused of extortion and drug trafficking.
He grew up in Mumbai and reportedly became involved in petty crime as a youth before rising to lead one of the city’s crime syndicates.
Indonesian police arrested him following a tip-off from officers in Australia, who say he was living there under a different name.